18 Feb Understanding Quality at Origin: Geisha Birdsong Panama 2019

In January Willem and I had the pleasure of hosting 11 students in Panama for our annual Geisha Birdsong, Quality at Origin course. Here is a photo album of the highlights. This trip was especially dynamic because our students came from a variety of backgrounds. Roasters, coffee producers, and even some coffee enthusiasts. We had students from the US, Hong Kong, Mexico and Panama.

The course started with an extensive tour of Finca Hartmann where Kelly Hartmann shared his deep knowledge of coffee varieties, agronomy, and land management and everyone experience fresh cherries right off the trees.

On the tour students experienced numerous varieties on the farm ranging from Maragogype, Pacamara (yellow and red), Caturra, and Catuai

To really understand the labor involved in producing specialty coffee, everyone spent time working at the mill washing coffee and preparing the parchment on the drying beds

During the visit to Finca La Mula, Willem Boot’s Geisha farm, students harvested ripe cherries for inspection by the farm manager

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Wilford Lamastus, owner of the award winning Elida Estate in Boquete hosted us for a farm and mill tour and tasting of his incredible processing experiments

Most afternoons found us roasting samples and performing quality assessments on a variety of coffees

This trip is always an intensive experience for students who learn about the essential elements required to produce quality coffee from seed to cup. With long days, beautiful vistas, and incredible coffee pioneers we guarantee a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope you can join us on a future trip. You can find all upcoming courses at bootcoffee.com/campus.